[1] I refer to that form which the Manifesto designates ironically under
the name of "German or 'True' Socialism." This paragraph, which is
unintelligible for those who are not well versed in the German
philosophy of that epoch, notably in certain of its tendencies marked by
acute degeneracy, has, with good reason, been suppressed in the Spanish
translation.
[2] It is better to use the expression "democratic socialization of the
means of production" than that of "collective property" because the
latter implies a certain theoretical error in that, to begin with, it
substitutes for the real economic fact a juridical expression and
moreover in the mind of more than one it is confused with the increase
of monopolies, with the increasing _statization_ of public utilities and
with all the other fantasmagoria of the ever recurring State socialism,
the whole effect of which is to increase the economic means of
oppression in the hands of the oppressing class.
[3] Twenty-five octavo pages in the original edition (London, February,
1848) for a copy of which I am indebted to the special kindness of
Engels. I should say here in passing that I have resisted the temptation
to affix any bibliographical notes, references and citations, for I
should then have been making a work of scholarship, or a book, rather
than a simple essay. I hope the reader will take my word for it that
there are in this essay no allusions, or statements of fact or opinion,
which I could not substantiate with authorities.
[4] The "Umrisse zu einer Kritik der National-oekonomie" appeared in the
German-French Year Book, Paris, 1844, pp. 85-114; and his book on "The
Condition of the Working Class in England" at Leipzig in 1845.
[5] In these last years many jurists have thought they found in the
re-adjustment of the civil Code a practical means for ameliorating the
condition of the proletariat. But why have they not asked the pope to
become the head of the free thought league? The most delightful of these
is that Italian author who occupying himself with the class struggle
asks that by the side of the code which establishes the rights of
capital another be elaborated which should guarantee the rights of
labor.
[6] This development has been given in Marx's Capital which can be
considered as a philosophy of history.
[7] It was not until after the publication of the Italian edition of
this essay that I had at my disposal for some months a complete
collection of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung for which I owe hearty thanks
to the Partei-Archiv of Berlin. The impression derived from this reading
surpasses expectation. It is desirable either that this journal which
now has become very rare, be reprinted entire or that the most important
articles and letters in it be reproduced.
[8] Misere de la Philosophie, by Karl Marx, Paris and Brussels, 1847;
new edition, Paris, Giard and Briere, 1896.
[9] This is made up of articles which appeared in 1849 in the Neue
Rheinische Zeitung and which reproduced the lectures given by Marx to
the German Workingmen's Circle of Brussels in 1847. It has since been
published as a propaganda leaflet.
[10] See Chapter II. of the Manifesto.
[11] Zur Kritik der politischen Oekonomie, Berlin, 1859, pp. IV.-VI. of
the preface. (Instead of retranslating this extract from the French I
have availed myself of the assistance of Comrade Hitch, who has
translated direct from the German of Marx. C. H. K.)
[12] These articles which appeared in the Neue Rheinische
Politischokonomische Review, Hamburg, 1850, have recently been brought
together into a pamphlet by Engels (Berlin, 1895) under the title of
"Die Klassenkampfe in Frankreich 1848 bis 1850." The little work has a
preface by Engels.
[13] Appeared for the first time in New York in 1852 in a review.
Several editions have since been made in Germany. A French translation
appeared in 1891 published by Delory, Lille.
[14] In the preface to the "Class Struggle in France in 1848-50" and
elsewhere Engels treated fundamentally the objective development of the
new revolutionary tactic. (It is well to remember that the first Italian
edition of this essay appeared June 18th, and the second, October 15,
1895.)
[15] In my opinion this is the case in France. The recent discussions of
the agrarian programme submitted to the deliberations of the social
democracy in Germany confirm the reasons which I have indicated.
[16] It was otherwise in Germany. After 1830 socialism was imported
there and became a current literature; it underwent philosophical
alterations of which Gruen was the typical representative. But already
before the _new doctrine_ socialism had received a characteristic
imprint which was proletarian, thanks to the propaganda and the writings
of Weitling. As Marx said in 1844 in the Paris Vorwaerts, "it was the
giant in the cradle."
[17] It is what many people call Marxism. Marxism is and remains a
doctrine. Parties can draw neither their name nor their justification
from a doctrine. "I am no Marxist" said--guess who? Marx himself.
[18] It is he who established the first relations between Marx and the
League and who served as intermediary in the publication of the
Manifesto. He fell in the insurrection of 1849 at Murg.
[19] Marx's Capital, Vol. III., Hamburg, 1894, pp. xix-xx. The date of
1845 refers principally to the book "Die heilige Familie, Frankfort,
1845," which was produced in collaboration by Marx and Engels. This book
is indispensable to an understanding of the theoretical origin of
historical materialism.
[20] I stop with Cabet who lived at the epoch of the Manifesto. I do not
think I ought to go as far as the sporadic forms of Bellamy and Hertzka.
[21] The Balzac of the 17th century.
[22] It is these writers whom Menger thought he had discovered as the
authors of scientific socialism.
[23] It is for this reason that certain critics, Wieser for example,
propose to abandon Ricardo's theory of value because it leads to
socialism.
[24] Thus there arises notably in France the illusion of a social
monarchy which, succeeding the liberal epoch, should solve harmoniously
what is called the social question. This absurdity reproduces itself in
infinite varieties of socialism of the pulpit and State socialism. To
the different forms of ideological and religious utopianism is joined a
new form of bureaucratic and fiscal utopianism, the Utopia of the
idiots.
[25] For example in the essays of Th. Rogers.
[26] Who would have thought a few years ago of the discovery and the
authentic interpretation of an ancient Babylonian law?
[27] Note 189, p. 740, of the 3rd German edition.